2004 550 fs
 

So I occasionally tease myself and look online for 550 SE's. For me, the 986 Holy Grail is the 04 Special Edition, specifically a 6 speed with the black roof/interior.

And I (almost) found one!

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NjY5WDEwMD...lTnqY1/$_4.JPG

Porsche Boxster 2dr Roadster | eBay

But....it's a Tip. If it were a 6 speed I'd be doing some serious thought on how to rationalize another 986.

I don't know about production specifics, but I'm curious how many blacktop 550's there are, with 6 speed and sport exhaust. Anyone on here have one?

-T

well there is one for sale up here in Poughkeepsie, NY '04 29,708 miles 6 spd Meticulously maintained. Asking 22k Get back to me if you are really interested.

AKL:cheers:

Only problem is it has the coconut brown roof and leather interior.

AKL

I've read somewhere that they all have the cocoa interior and roof.

Check out that ultra rare 959!

Those are the defaults but I think a black roof and interior was a no-cost option.

I was wondering if someone was going to catch the Easter Egg in the background. It looks like the 959 was sold, $675k was the asking price.

I also noticed the 550 is #666, so maybe that's not the one to own!

Tiptronic, painted seatbacks, and the black roof/dark grey interior were the only options. I've seen some with PSE and some without, so not sure if those were installed after the fact.

-T

It's a beautiful car. I remember being in the showroom of the biggest dealer in the state when it first arrived. Nothing cheap looking about the interior despite all the knocks you hear about the 986 interior. If only every Boxster rolled off the assembly line that well-appointed.

That being said, I'm not a fan of these limited production "special edition" Boxsters and Carreras that come with basically the same old engines found in all the other mass produced cars but arrive with outlandish price tags in some cases.
I see these special editions like the 550, the 40th and 50th anniversary 911's as a marketing product intended to drive up the price of car without really providing you substantial performance increase. Ditto for all these "black edition" cars.
At the end of the day a Porsche derives it's value from it's engine. The shell is just a shell. It's why an RS 4.0 911 commands a very steep $300+K price tag while a mass produced 997.1 commands ~$30K. Maybe more if you put a very expensive suspension on that 997.1 but still a car that's lost more than half it's value unlike the RS 4.0 which has barely budged. In my mind 'special edition' in Porsches means special engine.

I would pay somehwat more for a 550 because it has great options and possibly low miles but not because only x amount were made xyz options.
Now if the factory had somehow managed to wedge a dry sump 3.6 in there and made it Boxster Spyder light... different story.
However if you do find a low mileage 550 at competitive price relative to a similar mileage 986 S then it's a no brainer. But Tomonomics, this Ebay car pushing nearly 60K miles for $22K doesn't seem like a great deal to me. That car is going to sit a while.

by 2004 all the 911s were 3.6 so a 3.4 SE boxster would have been brilliant.

got big love for the cocoa brown interior, though.

P-Lap.....I never said it was a good deal, or that I'd pay 22K. But if it had a 6sp, it would have been worth some more research. As I said, the number of 6sp Blacktop 550s in the US is likely extremely low.

-T

The last model year of the body style, they didn't always do it, but starting around the time of the 550 986 there has always been a last model year special edition. Not sure of the real numbers but isn't a fair portion of all the 04 986s a 550, at least 1/5? But yes they keep this tradition to today with the black edition 987 cars, and the 911 sport classic. The cayanne had a titanium edition last year before the restyle.

I personally see it as a decent strategy though, it provides something a little bit different to buy once a model has gotten fairly stale. This goes alongside porsches strategy of staggering the release for types of the 911. First we got the 991, then we got the c4, then the gt3, then the turbo, then the targa, and now the GTS. Some executives lease just ended on his 2012 c2. Time to get a targa! A new car but not a new car. This allows for porsche to hold onto the same body styles for upwards of 6 years, while companies like Honda refresh every 2 and redesign every 4.

They made 1953 550s. I don't think a PSE was standard. It was marketed with a sports tailpipe exhaust ie the double letterbox.

Cocoa interior is nice. Sure it ages well too :)

PSM was standard. I have my window sticker. I saw a black trim one a year ago or so. I'll take the cocoa.

It has a '05 air filter, the oval type. The 550 sales pamphlet lists all the special features but it does not have memory seats or tilt pass mirror.

Of the 3 Porsches we have, the 04 SE with the brown top and interior is my wife's favorite. Last time she drove the C 4 she remarked on how much bigger harder to drive it felt than the boxster.

Yes I should have stated that I'm not a fan from a marketing point of view but the cars themselves are tremendous. unfortunately Porsche have to nickel and dime every option and we end up with all these barebones looking Boxsters and Carreras which was never the designer's vision and imho really reflects poorly on the brand. When I see the Boxster concept car from '93 and the 550 11 years later it makes me wonder why they didn't make the 986 look like that from the start. They would have saved themselves all the negative press about how the first 986's looked dull.

But admittedly it's not just the Boxsters, even in a center piece car like a $100+K 996 Turbo, once inside you'll look around to find that it's missing all these trim options found on a 550 Boxster.

The 1973 RS mention made me think...and do some pointless Porsche research. There are some pretty cool similarities between the factory-delivered Box 550 and RS.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1417802467.jpg

**This is not meant to be a highly scientific comparison, I just threw together some quickly gathered stats, and some are averaged since there is a lot of conflicting info on the RS**

But, it shows how amazing the RS was considering it was designed and built thirty years before the Boxster. It also shows how much performance and fun you can get out of the 986 Boxster S models in comparison to a legendary 911. (to which I apologize for comparing the two!)

-T

As the owner of 2 "Limited Edition" Porsches, I've never felt like I was holding a winning lottery ticket. They might be worth a few thousand more than a garden variety version, but a lot of that could be because Porsche slathered them up with options. And the serial number may add a bit too, if it's special. My LE is #5 of 250, which might be worth something, my CSS is #624 of 700 - not so much. The color of my CSS may add some value too. It all depends on what someone is looking for.

But if you start asking $4K more for a particular car than others of that yr, chances are you're getting into the next model yr's range. Unless someone is specifically looking for / wanting that special edition, they'll probably be more tempted to follow the advice of buying the newest car you can afford. Limited Edition probably means limited customer market.

Good point...

Found two
 

Right now Autotrader has TWO 6-speed 550s with black top and natural grey interior. One is from a private seller in Memphis, and the other is at an Audi dealer in Valencia, CA.

That car, in those colors, is the car I dreamed about owning for years. Unfortunately I could not swing the price back when they were selling for $30K.

Here is the brochure. I LOVE the painted seat backs!!!!!! Will likely have this done. My badge is under open trays, not on carpet. Looks way better.

http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/a...s0bdef9fb.jpeg

http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/a...s9fc1c318.jpeg

http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/a...s7cbb72b3.jpeg

http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/a...s99a761e1.jpeg

http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/a...sf634ade6.jpeg

http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/a...s74f20484.jpeg

http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/a...sc8996256.jpeg

http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/a...sdedbd7ab.jpeg